A semana da aviação fez um pouco no avião por último ano
"In spite of its considerable vintage, the sturdy British attack aircraft has all the attributes required for a stable, high-speed test platform" says Andy Gent, Martin-Baker’s head of flying and chief pilot. “From a test perspective the Meteor is ideal. The tail boom is fairly long and the fin is not very high. The engines are also spaced out a fair way out along the wing, so the efflux from the ejection test and exhaust from the gun and rocket motor isn’t potentially going down the engine intakes,” he says.
Based at Martin-Baker’s Chalgrove, England, test facility, the fleet is made up of two Meteors, WA638 and WL419, both of which have been with the company since the 1960s. “They are doing the job so why would you ever go through the heartache of getting another aircraft?” says Gent.
Em suma, não voa demais, faz o trabalho e é bem construído. Razão semelhante a maioria dos aviões mais antigos ainda estão voando nos dias de hoje.
O artigo continua dizendo que eles têm pouca intenção de mudar isso em breve:
Marketing Director Andrew Martin notes the company is one of only a handful that performs airborne ejection tests, and that the Meteor will continue to be used for the foreseeable future. “It is a tough thing to evaluate, and right now while we have these phenomenal assets we are not going to really think about a replacement in great detail,” he says. With the final retirement of the last Royal Air Force (RAF)-operated aircraft in the target towing role in the early 1980s, Martin-Baker acquired a large stock of spares and Rolls-Royce Derwent 8 turbojets. Because of that and the ample remaining airframe life, the company is no rush to find a successor.
Além disso, um pouco de nota lateral, este não é o único testbed deles. O MB também usa um trenó de alta velocidade para testar no Instalação de Langford Lodge, na Irlanda. Isso permite testar o solo dos assentos em velocidades de vôo. Eles também testam cenários estáticos em o que parece ser mock ups de cockpit , já que geralmente os assentos são certificado para uso Zero-Zero . Órgãos diretivos variados podem exigir testes e demonstrações ao vivo diferentes, conforme o processo de certificação, levando a diferentes procedimentos de teste.